Please Note: I do not own any of the characters, except the girl Charlie keeps thinking about. This is also based on the original book by Ben Sherwood, not the movie, I will, however work on a movie version after it has been realised

Chapter one

When Charlie opened his eyes it was still dark outside, he could see trees blowing in the wind & the moon making its departure, ready for the sun rise. It was time for him to rise too, to do the same things he had done everyday for practically the last thirteen years.

He got out of bed & headed into the bathroom of his little fetched cottage on the grounds of the graveyard at which he worked.

As the water flowed down his bare, strong back he felt his happiness wash away too as he remembered why he worked in such a gloomy, morbid place. He was only here for his brother, his little brother Sam who had died in a car crash when Charlie was fifteen.

They'd gone to baseball game in Boston, they'd taken a vacationing neighbours car & driven themselves. It was the only rebellious thing Charlie had done.

The night had ended in tragedy after a good day, as Sam pretended they were chasing the moon & Charlie looked too, a truck came out over nowhere & sent them spiralling in the air, the car had crush them.

Rescue teams were called & they cut Charlie & Sam out of the car, everyone knew they were going to die, all except one firemen named Florio. He desperately tried to save the brothers, they were getting so faraway & he didn't have a lot of time.

They were rushed to the nearest hospital, where once again Florio began to resuscitate them. But during this time, Charlie & Sam were sat in a dark place, neither of them recognized it.

"Where are we Charlie?" Sam had asked him

"I don't know but we'll be ok" Charlie had replied

"We're in huge trouble" Sam said "Mom'll ground us for life…what if we get sent to jail?!?"

"We won't…" Charlie paused "Well you won't, I probably will, you're only twelve"

"Do you promise to never leave me Charlie?" Sam asked

"I promise Sam…" Charlie said, but at that moment Charlie had started to fade, he was being resuscitated & coming back to live

"Charlie?" Sam panicked

"Don't worry" Charlie said "You'll come through in a second"

The next thing Charlie knew, he was staring up at the white lights of the hospital ceiling

"What's going on?" He panicked "Where's Sam?"

"I need your name son" Florio asked but he was still panicking

"Sam!"

"It's ok" Florio said, "I'll do him next, now what's your name?"

"Charlie" He said as the pain started taking over "Charlie St. Cloud"

"Ok Charlie" He said "Just relax, & everything will be fine"

Charlie managed to reach over & hold Sam's hand, he griped it tight & prayed….

Charlie leant his head against the cool tiles over the shower & closed his eyes. Since that day he'd let no one in, no one knew he could, he'd had girlfriends here & there but no one special…well except one…but she hadn't been his girlfriend, best friend in college, she knew & he'd regretted letting her slip through his fingers. He thought of this every morning too, the two most important people in his life, gone.

He looked up into the shower head & let the water cover his face, more memories of rainy days with her flooded his head & days of swimming in the sea with Sam.

He climbed out the shower & dried himself as the sky turned orange. He pulled on his uniform & headed down for breakfast.

He poured his cereal into a dark blue bowl, just like he did every morning & sat at the table with his coffee.

He sat there, eating, waiting for the same, usual knock on the door.

Just as he put his bowl & coffee cup in the sink, the knock sounded. Charlie smiled slightly, he always tried to do it at a time he thought Charlie wouldn't expect.

"Hey Joe" Charlie said, opening the front door

Joe also worked at the cemetery & was a couple of years older than Charlie. He was, I suppose you could say, a little bit of an womanizer, but he usually did the right thing

"Morning Charlie" He said "Slow day today"

"Hmm" Charlie said, stepping out in to the raising sun "Every business is going pretty slow at the moment"

They walked towards where Charlie kept the little cart to go around the cemetery on. Charlie had fixed it up over the years so when he was doing his routine check at night he could do it a lot faster.

"So..." Joe asked "You coming out on the boat tonight?"

"Not tonight Joe" Charlie replied, a little smile on his face, he was use to this question & he always said the same answer

"You need a girlfriend, come meet some girls"

"I don't want to meet some girls"

"You act like an old man sometimes" Joe muttered

Charlie chuckled "That's me, old man St. Cloud"

Joe rolled his eyes, he knew why Charlie worked here, he understood, he was starting to worry about his friend though, Charlie was too tied down to this place, especially at night.

"When are you going to come hang out with us again, you know down at the café?"

"On Sunday, we don't need to work then. But only for a couple of hours"

"Unless you meet a girl"

"I won't meet a girl. I can't talk to girls…"

"And why is that?" Joe grinned

Charlie sighed, ready to recite the same message yet again "Because they don't talk to me because I am a lowly caretaker of a cemetery, in a little place called Marblehead. I'm not a big wig from Boston or New York. To put it lightly…I suck"

This was far from true. Charlie had brown hair with a fringe that swept in his light brown, almost hazelnut eyes. He had a strong, musuclar yet slender build from doing manual labor everyday. He was tall, 6"3….& every girl who saw him stared, until they heard all the old stories of Charlie past. Every time this led to Charlie thinking of her…

"You promise to come to the habor café on Sunday?" Joe said

"Yes!" He said "I've already promised"

"And I am going to hook you up with a girl…"

"No you're not" He said

"Oh come on…"

"Joe…" He sighed "…I've never told you this before but…" He ran his fingers through his hair "I've been in love…& it hurt to see her go. I never told her & God, I wish I had"

"Didn't you keep in contact with her?"

"No, I was ok until she told about her amazing boyfriend. Then I couldn't deal anymore"

"Why didn't you tell her?"

"Because I loved her & if I wanted her to be happy, I had to let her live her dream"

"The feelings stil there?"

"Oh yeah"

"What about that other chick…? Er…Rebecca?"

Charlie shook his head "Crush, no where near how I feel for her"

Joe continued to bug Charlie all day about the mystery girl, Charlie was begginning to regret telling him.

"So come on" Joe said as they locked up the cemetary for the night "Can I see a picture of this girl?"

"No…"

"Any details…?"

"No, Joe"

Joe noticed the irritens in Charlie's voice "Ok, ok"

Charlie sighed "I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm sorry"

Joe shook his head "Don't worry about it" He stood by the workers gate "I'll see you later"

"Yeah see you later" Charlie locked the gate behind him & started making his way back up to his little

cottage.

He headed upstairs to his room & sat on his bed for a second. Beside his bed was a night stand & on the night stand were two photos.

The first one was of Charlie & Sam at Sam's tweleveth birthday, the last one he'd ever have. Sam had curly brown hair, the only thing that had been left by his fleeing father, Charlie's had left too but Sam looked a lot like their mother, unlike Charlie who resembled his father. Sam also had browny-green eyes & a cheeky

smile.

The second one was of Charlie & the girl he wished he hadn't let go. It was on one of their few trips to the beach before she transferred to USC to follow her dream. Charlie had his arms around her bare waist & the biggest grin he had ever had on his face. She was laughing & wisps of her blonde hair blew in all directions, her blue eyes sparkling.

Charlie's chest got that familiar ache in his chest like he did every morning & every night, he lay back on the bed & closed his eyes.

After a few minuets, he sat up & walked over to his closet. He pulled out a dark green t-shirt & jeans then started to take off his work clothes.

In the mirror, he could see the scars from where he'd been resusitated, they had tried so many times it had burnt his skin.

Downstairs, he pulled on a black jacket & sneakers & headed out into the cold night air. He looked up at the sky as it was turning orange & took a quick stroll across the cemetry & into the Forest of Shadows.

In there, was a path. Not a path that belonged there but one that had appeared from Charlie walking down there so often. He could walk down the path blind he'd been there so many times, he wouldn't have walked into any branches, tripped over any roots of rocks, he knew exactly where he was going

He came to a clearing, it had a baseball pitch & self made pond, it resembled a little park that Charlie use to take Sam to…he'd brought her here…

Charlie sat on the little log bench & waited. He didn't dare call out, he didn't need people thinking he was crazy again, so he waited…& he waited…& he waited

He looked at his watch 'Doesn't usually take this long' he thought & looked up at the little bit of sky he could see between the trees, he was starting to panic, should be here by now, was he too late?

Charlie heard a rusling in the trees & began to calm down, he wasn't too late, he was early in fact. From in between the bushes a boy around tweleve with curly hair, browny-green eyes & a cheeky smile appeared

"Hey Charlie" Sam grinned